Sam Blewett

An eyewitness has spoken of the incident which claimed the life of a 24-year-old when he reportedly leaned out of the window of a Gatwick Express carriage.

The man, from East Grinstead, West Sussex, was pronounced dead at Wandsworth Common Station, in south London, after sustaining a “serious head injury”, according to police.

The British Transport Police’s Inspector James Tyrrell denied national media reports that the man had been decapitated after being struck by the train at around 5.30pm on Sunday.

But a woman from nearby Battersea, who gave her name only as Rhianna, told Wandsworth Radio that she was standing on a footbridge overlooking the station when the incident occurred. She said: “He lifted his head out and basically he didn’t notice that the train was coming.

“I actually ran because it was disgusting. The train stopped and people were screaming, they were coming out and then I saw the two ladies, they were more traumatic but all I saw was the split second of what happened.

“I just had to turn my head away.”

She said there were between 15 and 20 people on the man’s carriage, which was bound for London Victoria Station, and witnesses were devastated by the scenes.

“The woman who mostly saw it in her face I even spoke to her she was crying and she was hurt that she even saw something like that and she was traumatised,” she said.

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